Category Archives: Featured Photos

Post navigation

I was fortunate to be with a couple of great photographers on Fireworks Night at the park in Parksville, Vancouver Island. We went up full of hope for a perfect evening, clear sky, calm water and warm. The opposite occurred: rain, strong wind and ruddy cold but still better to be out with a camera than at home on the couch. Absolutely no hope of a tripod staying still for long exposures, solution just handhold and hope for something to turn out that looks a bit creative.

Colour Explosion 6540

Ethereal Gull

Ghostly Conversation

The Wave

Imagine 6521

I was fortunate to spend this last weekend in Vancouver with two photography friends. The highlights of the trip were stops at Ambleside Park, the City Centre and Chinatown especially the Chinese Cultural Centre and Sun Yat Sen Garden in the day time followed by night photography at Stanley Park. Torrential rain shut us down before we completed the full set of stops planned but overall we came back to the hotel tired and happy. The next morning we headed to Chinatown early to catch the opening of all the markets before the parade. There was snow overnight but the day for the parade was cold and clear….perfect.

Here are 3 images which I am happy with. I captured them early morning at the public Marina in Ladysmith while waiting for our sailboat to come out of the water for maintenance. Although it is “Junuary” here on the west coast we have hopes for a long hot summer. There is variety in the images which I hope you will also enjoy. Basically, you just never know what you shall see as a photographer but the most important things are never leave home without a camera and always be looking and aware of your surroundings.

Here is an effect that I like which was created by fluke…camera on the wrong settings when I pushed the shutter button. I took the time to actually look at the photo and realized its potential before hitting the delete key. Yes, it was early morning at Hecate Park in Cowichan Bay, waiting for more vintage cars to arrive for a tour of the local valley.

2017 May 28th in great weather I was fortunate to fly into the Chilcotin to Tsuniah Lake. It was fabulous to fly in a small plane from Duncan, to Courtenay for refueling. Leaving Courtenay, the route was over the south end of Quadra, Stuart Island and on up Bute Inlet then following the Homathko River. While travelling the Homathko we were trying to spot the remnants of Waddington’s 1861 proposed route to the Gold Fields of interior BC. Also we were trying to spot the location of the 1864 Chilcotin Massacre. Our destination was Tsuniah Lake Lodge which is an experience that belongs on everyone’s bucket list. At 4000 feet it is set amongst Coastal/Chilcotin mountains where there are grizzly bears and spawning trout at this time of year as well as wildflowers in bloom.

Finally an evening without rain and the midway was in Nanaimo for the weekend. This spells fun plus a wonderful opportunity to practice night slow shutter speed photography. The colours were wonderful. I hope you enjoy these few images.

With having finished a year of capturing and posting images everyday I think I am suffering from photo exhaustion and looking for something new. Now I have discovered combining photo images with digital painting. This presents some interesting possibilities to explore this year. Also I have started experimenting with double exposures again, below find two examples.

Thursday February 16th was Light Up the Night here in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. It was perfect weather clear and above zero for the Rotary Fund Raiser. Chinese Lanterns are purchased for $5 each, the province puts in another $5 and then the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation doubles that again, the money going to smallpox immunization in the third world. With 350 lanterns available a lot of money was raised. Ladysmith turned out in mass and all ages enjoying the outing in February. The young children were having a ball running around with no thoughts of being tired later when they got home. Parents may have had some other ideas though.

November 9, 2016 ~ Visited a favourite haunt with a photographer friend to check for the return of wintering Trumpeter Swans. No swans but a multitude of California Sea Lions feeding on the returning Chum Salmon. It was a stellar day watching and photographing the sea lions feeding with the seagulls swooping in to clean up the scraps. The sea lions have very messy table manners. The seine fishing fleet was also out in full force. The preservation behaviour of the salmon was fascinating…they hovered as close to the shore as possible out of reach of the sea lions. Dorsal fins and the upper tail fins were sticking above the surface. The trees surrounding the beach were full of eagles waiting for low tide to feast on the expired salmon left on shore. It was a day not to be missed.

October 9, 2016 ~ After attending an inspiring workshop yesterday given by Marc Koegel, I acquired many ideas for a new approach to my images. The weather outside was horrendous on the early morning drive to Nanaimo so it was a double plus to be in a seminar and inside where I looked for images for day 282 of my project for 2016, “AYear of Days” posted under Image Portfolios. Marc did emphasize a minimalist approach which I have tried to create above with these three images of lights in the Nanaimo Conference Centre.